(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Welcome to one of several long standing arguments with the TCG. To the poitn where "the old days" can also refer to the EX era (technically Gen 5, but more Gen 6) and even the SP Era but also some other various types of cards throughout the history.
V Pokemon can at least evolve into other "types", even if it's not "proper" evolution ie there's Vs that go into VMAX or VStar.

Though the bigger design snafoo is more "big basics" in general. ex & GX Pokemon at least have the evolution aspect but they also still print "big" ex/GX Pokemon. Stage 2s are incredibly annoying to dedicate deck space too (& you often ignore the middle stage for rare candies instead) and get out so you have to either be really really good or have a really really good support ability to make it worth while. Or be Gardevoir ex who is both and also has reason to play the full line because Kirlia has a busted ability.

Which I guess credit where it's due, that seems to be the design space they want to push (central beat stick big basic + support normies) but it does always feel a little off when even a normal stage 2 Pokemon can struggle to make a dent in a given V or ex.
Well I used to play around the Firered and Leafgreen era (Quick Search Pidgeot lol), which is what I mean by “old days.”

Why is Kirlia so busted anyway?
 
Well I used to play during the Firered and Leafgreen era, which is what I mean by “old days.”

Why is Kirlia so busted anyway?
Kirlia's Refinement ability lets you discard a card and draw 2 cards. There's been abilities like that on various Pokemon, but when you can have 4 of the things out there and also you evolve into a 320 ex Pokemon that can attach from the discard pile or evolve into the normal gardevoir that takes advantage of the ex gardevoir's abilities....AND ALSO that gardevoir has an ability that lets you just draw 2 cards period....

you're worth running a 4/4/4 line (splitting the gardevoirs) just because its worth spending the extra turns to draw through like a quarter of your deck every single turn to get whatever you need wherever you want. Even with something like Iono depending on the board state you're probably not sweating because you're just going to get most of it back.

Contrast with Magnezone ex where you probably don't even want to bother with Magneton at all, or Baxcalibur wher eyou maybe have *a* Arctibax just in case because not getting a Baxcalibur out makes Chien-Pao ex much harder to run.



Or compare with the Mew deck that literally can just draw through 20 damn cards with Genesect V. Can't even blame that one on the lack of evolutoins....
 
As someone who hyperfixiated on the TCG right before the pandemic (literal worst time), I prefer EX and V cards over the GX and ex cards just from being able to immediately use my favorite final evolutions.

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(Always carried 3 Sonia's for this reason)

I also didn't like the look of GX cards compared of EX and V.

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Sometimes it looks great like with Gardevoir.

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Then we have stinkers with Sceptile, in the most unflattering angle.
 
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As someone who hyperfixiated on the TCG right before the pandemic (literal worst time), I prefer EX and V cards over the GX and cards just from being able to immediately use my favorite final evolutions.

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(Always carried 3 Sonia's for this reason)

I also didn't like the look of GX cards compared of EX and V.

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Sometimes it looks great like with Gardevoir.

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Then we have stinkers with Sceptile, in the most unflattering angle.

I quite like that Sceptile angle. Really emphasises the head structure
 
The 3D on these cards are always cap out at "its okay I guess". Like I don't like the Gardevoir EX or ex and so on at all; the GX at least has an actual background. The V at least proves that just because it's 2D artwork doesn't mean its necessarily good

Also just gonna say none of Sceptiles big cards look good. It's just an awkward head and they always want an action pose
 
Mewtwo and Charizard having 2 megas. Seriously, not that many pokemon even get a mega in the first place. Why did they have to give those pokemon 2 megas? Also Mewtwo Y is one of the most stupid looking pokemon we have imo. Megas are supposed to look much bigger and stronger than their regular form but Y is actually smaller than regular Mewtwo and less frightening. The tail coming from its head is really weird also. I don't have an issue with the X tho.
 
Mewtwo and Charizard having 2 megas. Seriously, not that many pokemon even get a mega in the first place. Why did they have to give those pokemon 2 megas?
Gen I and popularity. It's kind of obvious tbh.

Also Mewtwo Y is one of the most stupid looking pokemon we have imo. Megas are supposed to look much bigger and stronger than their regular form but Y is actually smaller than regular Mewtwo and less frightening. The tail coming from its head is really weird also.
I can kind of see what they were going for. It's kind of like ascended to have more psychic power or whatever and is thus squisher looking and smaller. I don't get the tail thing, though.
 
It is admittedly interesting that despite Mewtwo and Charizard having two Megas, there's a clear distinction in philosophy between them in both cases that is consistent. On the surface one is physical and the other is special, but if you really look at it the Y megas are the "normal" Mega Evolutions of Charizard and Mewtwo in that they are the more traditional Mega Evolution of the two, being a direct stat upgrade in terms of the stat builds of the base Charizard and Mewtwo, and design wise they are much closer to their base forms and feel more like the obvious and natural evolved form of their base forms.

Mega Charizard Y was shown first in marketing iirc alongside Mega Venusaur and Mega Blastoise, and was much closer to what an evolved form of Charizard would look like from the get go and they made it clear it was the "natural" and "normal" Mega Charizard and is much more closely aligned with Mega Venusaur and Mega Blastoise, right down to keeping the same type combo and its statline still being close to the Charmander line's general statline build. Mega Mewtwo Y was also revealed first between the two. Mega Charizard X on the other hand was revealed individually much later as something more comparatively special.

Which brings me to my other point, which is that the X Megas are the more "deviant" Mega Evolutions and feel more like a special Mega and an extreme differentiation from their base form. If the Y Megas, alongside other traditional Megas, are more like the natural evolved form like your typical cross-gen evolution and the natural pinnacle of the line, the X Megas are much more different both in design, type combo, and statline. They feel more like say, Porygon2 to Porygon-Z in that regard, or perhaps Gallade and Froslass compared to the original Ralts and Snorunt lines.

Mega Charizard X has a more radically different statline and its ability and stat boosts focus on a more distinct physical attacker and bulky hit taker build as opposed to Charizard's usual schtick, further compounded by Mega Charizard X being part Dragon-type, ie changing its type combo. Mega Mewtwo X on the other hand is similar, with most of its stat increase going into physical Attack and becoming part Fighting-type, becoming more of a brawn type as opposed to Mewtwo and Mega Mewtwo Y's fast and frail Special Attacker approach, the latter of which is more of a direct upgrade of base Mewtwo a la Mega Charizard Y to Charizard.

Branched Mega Evolutions were still a pretty cool aspect of them in my book and while admittedly it could've been done with more than just Mewtwo and Charizard I do like the distinction in philosophy between the two Megas that prevails in both cases so I wasn't really bothered by them getting two Megas apiece. It's a nice way to add more creativity to how Megas were designed than just sticking to "direct upgrade of the original".

Also Mewtwo Y is one of the most stupid looking pokemon we have imo. Megas are supposed to look much bigger and stronger than their regular form but Y is actually smaller than regular Mewtwo and less frightening.

It's a case of where true to the Psychic-type, it relies on mind powers/psionic magic as its power and it shrinks its physical build which ironically allows its psionic power to increase. So while it doesn't look as frightening on the surface, its psychic powers are significantly stronger and it can use them even more effectively. Its LGPE dex entry even alludes to this where its psionic powers are so strong that it can smash a skyscraper to smithereeens with just a mere thought.
 
It is admittedly interesting that despite Mewtwo and Charizard having two Megas, there's a clear distinction in philosophy between them in both cases that is consistent. On the surface one is physical and the other is special, but if you really look at it the Y megas are the "normal" Mega Evolutions of Charizard and Mewtwo in that they are the more traditional Mega Evolution of the two, being a direct stat upgrade in terms of the stat builds of the base Charizard and Mewtwo, and design wise they are much closer to their base forms and feel more like the obvious and natural evolved form of their base forms.

Mega Charizard Y was shown first in marketing iirc alongside Mega Venusaur and Mega Blastoise, and was much closer to what an evolved form of Charizard would look like from the get go and they made it clear it was the "natural" and "normal" Mega Charizard and is much more closely aligned with Mega Venusaur and Mega Blastoise, right down to keeping the same type combo and its statline still being close to the Charmander line's general statline build. Mega Mewtwo Y was also revealed first between the two. Mega Charizard X on the other hand was revealed individually much later as something more comparatively special.

Which brings me to my other point, which is that the X Megas are the more "deviant" Mega Evolutions and feel more like a special Mega and an extreme differentiation from their base form. If the Y Megas, alongside other traditional Megas, are more like the natural evolved form like your typical cross-gen evolution and the natural pinnacle of the line, the X Megas are much more different both in design, type combo, and statline. They feel more like say, Porygon2 to Porygon-Z in that regard, or perhaps Gallade and Froslass compared to the original Ralts and Snorunt lines.

Mega Charizard X has a more radically different statline and its ability and stat boosts focus on a more distinct physical attacker and bulky hit taker build as opposed to Charizard's usual schtick, further compounded by Mega Charizard X being part Dragon-type, ie changing its type combo. Mega Mewtwo X on the other hand is similar, with most of its stat increase going into physical Attack and becoming part Fighting-type, becoming more of a brawn type as opposed to Mewtwo and Mega Mewtwo Y's fast and frail Special Attacker approach, the latter of which is more of a direct upgrade of base Mewtwo a la Mega Charizard Y to Charizard.

Branched Mega Evolutions were still a pretty cool aspect of them in my book and while admittedly it could've been done with more than just Mewtwo and Charizard I do like the distinction in philosophy between the two Megas that prevails in both cases so I wasn't really bothered by them getting two Megas apiece. It's a nice way to add more creativity to how Megas were designed than just sticking to "direct upgrade of the original".



It's a case of where true to the Psychic-type, it relies on mind powers/psionic magic as its power and it shrinks its physical build which ironically allows its psionic power to increase. So while it doesn't look as frightening on the surface, its psychic powers are significantly stronger and it can use them even more effectively. Its LGPE dex entry even alludes to this where its psionic powers are so strong that it can smash a skyscraper to smithereeens with just a mere thought.
While I agree that Charizard Y is closer to the original line's concept (and that spinoff developers should notice this instead of trying to have base Charizard be a bulky physical attacker), I'm not as convinced for Mewtwo Y, because I often end up comparing base Mewtwo to base Mew. Mewtwo is already more physically imposing than its predecessor (mew), and generally maintains the lack of weaknesses while also picking up better SpA and speed. It then feels more intuitive for Mewtwo to continue to bulk up, gain another high offensive stat, and reclaim the few lost points in defenses compared to Mewtwo Y having (by legendary standards) an exploitably low Defense.

That said, I do prefer to consider both Mega Mewtwo forms being equally valid. It brings a parallel to the other mons designed as living weapons: Genesect and Silvally can also tailor their matchups using the item slot, Mewtwo just does it by stats rather than typing.
 
Mewtwo and Charizard having 2 megas. Seriously, not that many pokemon even get a mega in the first place. Why did they have to give those pokemon 2 megas? Also Mewtwo Y is one of the most stupid looking pokemon we have imo. Megas are supposed to look much bigger and stronger than their regular form but Y is actually smaller than regular Mewtwo and less frightening. The tail coming from its head is really weird also. I don't have an issue with the X tho.

Charizard I understood perfectly, Y being similar to the other Kanto starters Megas and X just trying to be edgy black dragon. Mewtwo Y fits with the established tropes of ascended Psychic power - floating, bigger head, relatively small body.

Mewtwo X looks like it just put on shoulder pads and got its tail snipped. Always hated it.
 
Gyarados being a part flying type really annoys me. If water/dragon had been too overpowered in gen 1, they should have made it a mono water type then. Now that it's a flying type type, why it can't even learn some useful flying type moves such as aerial ace and brave bird?
Because it doesn't have claws and isn't a bird.
 
The main thing that bothers me about Mega Mewtwo X is that it didn't receive any moveset changes to fully utilize its differences from regular Mewtwo. Heracross got a bunch of multi-hitting moves, Kangaskhan got Power-Up Punch, and Gyrados got Crunch in ORAS. Would Close Combat been too far of a stretch?

And speaking of stretch...

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M-Mewtwo X having stretchable limbs feels completely underutilized, mostly from M-Mewtwo X not showing up often. Hopefully Mewtwo's popularity can bring it back in some new form, either through a physically orientated regional form or a Paradox appearance.
 
Because it doesn't have claws and isn't a bird.
Focusing on Aerial Ace specifically, there's plenty of things that get Aerial Ace without claws(or scythes or whatever) and that aren't birds. Most insects, Mr Mime, Misdreavus, Mantine, Tangrowth, Stoutland, Bouffalant and so on.
You can excuse most of them through some way or another: Flying ability, something else that might be sharp (fangs, horns, or vines, maybe) but you can also apply that same logic to the flying snake with fangs and a big horn. It should definitely have gotten Aerial Ace at some point. Not like it would really be breaking the bank with it, surely.
 
Focusing on Aerial Ace specifically, there's plenty of things that get Aerial Ace without claws(or scythes or whatever) and that aren't birds. Most insects, Mr Mime, Misdreavus, Mantine, Tangrowth, Stoutland, Bouffalant and so on.
You can excuse most of them through some way or another: Flying ability, something else that might be sharp (fangs, horns, or vines, maybe) but you can also apply that same logic to the flying snake with fangs and a big horn. It should definitely have gotten Aerial Ace at some point. Not like it would really be breaking the bank with it, surely.
Considering the move's original name in Japanese is a sword technique, I'm imagining Mr. Mime pulling out a knife to shank people lol.
 
Whenever I wonder if GameFreak has been getting worse at programming, I remember it's a 50/50 shot the first games in a generation aren't buggy in some way. Like the first non-English Pokemon games weren't even the original releases, they were rereleases made to fix major bugs, which I should add is more commonplace with Japanese games.
 
I think a lot of jank in Pokemon games can just be on the back of "even games with longer development times can be irddled with bugs due to complexity".

So things like the camera clipping in to the ground, or models clipping into geometry, are probably part & parcel with this open style of game. Honestly it was probably a miracle that Legends Arceus was as put together as it was. And really if the game looked better visually I think a lot of people wouldn't mind as much...

But then there's ones where its like, gamefreak, why are you rendering the ocean all the time throughout paldea. Why are you putting all of that in a Sky Globe larger than earth. What the heck happened that causes the bizarre amount of lag, rendering issues and frame rate weirdness in the game's opening segment. Like why is the Jacq introduction cutscene, which is in a small classroom rendered in a void, have you able to count the frames on almost every character but then you go into real gameplay and everyone runs normally.

a real mix & match of issues at work.
 
The fact that Smogon's lowest (or one of the lowest) tier NU has historically been "Neverused" and thus we will never have "No U" for a bottom usage tier.
I enjoyed the PU meme while it lasted, but honestly at this point, I think within a gen, even "Z U" may not be enough anymore.
Well, though Dexit being a thing and limited format means maybe we aren't necessarly going to need a subzero usage tier....
 
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